Re: Anyone buy one of these yet or thinking of buying one?

Re: Anyone buy one of these yet or thinking of buying one?

There's nothing special about this laptop. The"special" drivers are just backported from newer kernels (Ubuntu LTS is on 3.2), a child can install the Android SDK, and Dell's call for community contributions is ridiculous unless they're giving these laptops away to developers.

The laptop has a low resolution screen completely unfit for the price, the battery life is average at best and the design is a pretty shameless Macbook Air ripoff.

On a second note, all the ultrabooks have significant heating problems. If my lap is gonna burn, I'll just as soon buy somethnig with an Nvidia card so I can turn off the gas in the winter. I'm pretty sure my next computer is gonna be a small form desktop or an all in one desktop, completed by a smartphone for mobile needs. Since I expect this ProBook beast to go for at least four more years, there's no hurry. If I was buying a portable right now, I'd buy Samsung's ARM Chromebook. x86 will only make sense on a desktop in a few years anyway.

Re: Anyone buy one of these yet or thinking of buying one?

It does make you wonder who their market is. Rich kids whose mummies think they're developers?

Re the screen: my current screen is the same size and it's inefficient for work that requires multiple windows to be open.

The fact that they're not even willing to make a transfer/sticker for an Ubuntu super-key says a lot about either their commitment to the project and or their wafer-thin margins.

That said, I'd probably buy one as I've had such a negative experience wrestling with my Vaio. First for Linux and then for reinstalling Windows. Maybe it does things I don't need really well but honestly my half-dead Packard Bell from 7 years ago does some things more efficiently.

Re: Anyone buy one of these yet or thinking of buying one?

Can't really see what the draw is; that Ubuntu is pre-installed? But that only takes half an hour-45 minutes to get it ready to install anyway, from downloading the .iso to having the USB stick/CD in the new laptop. Why spend the money on this? Hardware is alright, screen resolution is a bit crap though.

Re: Anyone buy one of these yet or thinking of buying one?

Re: Anyone buy one of these yet or thinking of buying one?

Pointlessly agree's w everyone else.

If ya buy a $1,500 buck lappy to run gnu/nix or do "development", you either a.) Have entirely too much cash or b.) Are retarded ... and/or c.) Very likely ... BOTH. And yet ... never underestimate neither the massive amount of stupid people with too much money. Painful life experience, haz shown me many times ... There's more of em than you'd ever think ... Dammit !!!

Last edited by CBizgreat! (2013-01-30 14:45:51)

Some common cbiz abbreviations. This will save me time and yet @ same time tell folks what the babble is supposed to mean.

Re: Anyone buy one of these yet or thinking of buying one?

Forgive me for mentioning this for, oh, the 4,000th time since I've been in these parts, but if you're thinking about buying a new Linux-based laptop, you should go with a laptop maker that bases its hardware on Linux. Two makers come immediately to mind: ZaReason and System76. You can get any distro you want with System76, as long as it's Ubuntu. ZaReason offers a wide range of distros, including CrunchBang by request. Both, I think, also offer a "no distro" option too, I believe -- allowing you to put on whichever distro you prefer.

There are others, too. But those are the ones that come to mind immediately, and truth in advertising: I own a ZaReason laptop that I used daily, until my daughter asked to use it to do Steam Linux beta testing.

Huge caveat: Yes, it's more expensive to go this route. But the tradeoff here is rather than supporting a huge hardware conglomerate joined at the hip with Microsoft (where each sale gives credit in the Redmond tally), you're actually helping people who are supporting Linux and FOSS.

Re: Anyone buy one of these yet or thinking of buying one?

Indeed. I had a look at a preinstalled Linux provider - the sole provider where I live - and they do decent laptops with Ubuntu and its KDE,Xfce, LXDE variants or Debian at a much more reasonable price. Next time I buy a laptop I will buy one of those.

They also offer Ubuntu installation for €50, which is crazy. Really if anyone out there's having a hard time installing Ubuntu, I'll do it for you for the mere price of a couple of beers and a packet of crisps.

Re: Anyone buy one of these yet or thinking of buying one?

intoCB wrote:

They also offer Ubuntu installation for €50, which is crazy. Really if anyone out there's having a hard time installing Ubuntu, I'll do it for you for the mere price of a couple of beers and a packet of crisps.

Truly. I could see a shop charging something for labor (sorry, labour), maybe, for taking the time to install a distro, but $100 (which is about what 50 euros is, I guess) is outrageous. I, too, would do it for the price you're charging, intoCB.

Re: Anyone buy one of these yet or thinking of buying one?

Yet another 1366x768 laptop. Pass. My 2 year old 11.6" netbook has that resolution. My phone has roughly that resolution. This is a general complaint, as you even see it on most 15" laptops as well. The laptop screen industry needs a kick in the pants. Why can't they take a cue from the phone market?